Welcome to Analytics Demystified 2.0

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By now you’ve noticed that we’ve completely re-done the Analytics Demystified web site, that is unless you only ever read my posts in an RSS reader in which case I would ask you to click-through and have a look. The new site is the culmination of nearly a year’s effort starting with convincing my good friend Aurelie Pols to join the Analytics Demystified and, more recently, convincing my other good friend John Lovett to leave his cushy job at Forrester Research to join Aurelie and I. Hopefully you find the new site more streamlined, easier to read, and a little more focused on the aspects of Analytics Demystified we are working to feature.

Totally revamped mini-site for The Analysis Exchange, including the ability for everyone to start to create their member profiles. The Analysis Exchange has exceeded every single expectation that I had going in, thanks to many people’s efforts. If you’re interested in helping the Analysis Exchange or learning more about the effort please visits http://www.analysis-exchange.com

Partially revamped mini-site for Web Analytics Wednesday, with more features and updates coming in Q2. Web Analytics Wednesday has become such an automated delight, and with SiteSpect and Coremetrics renewing their sponsorship in 2010 we hope to do even more this coming year!

All new look and feel for my,Aurelie, and John’s blogs, and the addition of our new Emerging Technology blog. So much of our traffic is driven by the blogs, and so many of our clients find us based on our writing here, we wanted to ensure that reading our blogs was as distraction free as possible. The Emerging Technology blog is something we think of as “TechCrunch for Web Analytics” and we hope you’ll check that out.

One thing about my last point, our consulting business and giving us a call. On past sites there were dozens of calls to action and conversion points I was trying to get people to and through. On this site there is one: getting YOU to reach out to US. It may sound glib, but we are able to do more for people who simply email, call, Skype, or Twitter us than most folks can imagine, and often times our help comes without any kind of fee.

Put another way, if you need our professional help, we’ll help you and hopefully you’ll be satisfied with what we ask you to pay. But if you need our guidance, suggestions, or honest opinion, we’ll help you without ever bringing up fees or asking for money. Like the book giveaway, Web Analytics Wednesday, and The Analysis Exchange we have found that simply answering questions without expectation of compensation is often times better than getting paid.

In closing I am totally delighted with the traffic we had to the site today thanks to Twitter, the #measure channel, and the book offer. Based on my Omniture Insights reporting we were completely off the charts in Europe and this AM in the U.S. We’d love your help spreading the word about the book! If you can, tell people to click through on http://bit.ly/demystified-books or simply to check out the new web site.

As always I welcome your comments, critique, and feedback. Especially if you have nice things to say about the new site, of want to help me identify bugs (since not all of you use Chrome on the Mac … LOL!)

3 Comments

Wow, what an amazing gift, free PDF copies of Eric’s books! Thanks you guys and good luck with Web Analytics Demystified 2.0. The site redesign looks very refreshing!

Les FaberJanuary 30th, 2010

Hi Eric,

First, I would like to tell you that the site looks perfect on my MacBook via the Chrome browser!

Moving on, I think your overall strategy, route to market, and community support are superb. You are hitting every point I would hope to hit when “I grow up”.

On ‘insights”, I find it odd that this post gets 30 Tweets and only 2 comments (providing you approve mine – LOL). Is Twitter killing commenting? Or are people simply too busy? Or both?

A parting suggestion…. keep the conversation alive by integrating a comment subscription feature on the Blog. I know that I often forget what I have read and always leverage this feature when available.

Cheers!

ericJanuary 30th, 2010

Les: Thanks for your comment, and thanks for noticing about Chrome and Mac. 😉 Over the years I have realized that I tend to publish two kinds of posts: those that are of general interest, usually about our business, and those about the practice of web analytics.

The former tends to only get a few comments, if any, which is more or less “as designed.” While I certainly appreciate public feedback the goal of these posts is more to communicate basic information and less about engaging the audience in conversation.

The latter, however, tends to generate conversation which is what we always hope. If you look back at some of the stuff I’ve written about measures, metrics, and the broader web analytics community, you’ll see good comment streams. A good example is my original post that began the series on measures of visitor engagement.

That said, I have little doubt that Twitter has had an impact on blog commentary. While only anecdotal, I suspect if you trended the volume of comments over at Avinash Kaushik’s blog over the past three years, you would see a general decline (I cite Mr. Kaushik as he is the reigning “king of comments” 😉

Especially if you compared comment volume to his reading audience, I would bet that his “comment rate” (= comments posted / total post readers) has declined as his popularity has soared. Twitter does contribute to this I suspect as you can see that his volume of people retweeting him and referencing him directly in Twitter has steadily increased over time.

Eric T. Peterson is author of Web Analytics Demystified, Web Site Measurement Hacks and The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators and a long-time member of the web analytics community. He frequently presents on web analytics and is often cited in articles about digital measurement. In the past Mr. Peterson has worked with well-known brands like Microsoft, HP, Cisco, Best Buy, Disney, LEGO, CBS and CBS News, and ESPN. More recently, Mr. Peterson has founded The Analysis Exchange, a completely new way to gain experience with digital measurement.
As an employee of Analytics Demystified Eric is a member of the Digital Analytics Association (DAA), an Adobe Business Partner, and a Google Analytics Certified Partner.